Wednesday, September 10, 2008

My Less Leguminous Affair

When I put up a picture of the meal I’d cooked for a friend recently, some of you asked me for the recipes. Most of them were standard and popular dishes, so I hesitated to put out yet another recipe for them but when I made one of them again a few days ago, I fell so in love with its looks that I have to extend the narcissism to my blog. I don't really like radish but the thin discs showing through the soup/stew looked nice and I had to take photographs. This is radish pappucharu, pappucharu (or pappu pulusu) being a lighter version of the sambar.

I could never get sambar right. A simple and standard dish that most can turn out in a jiffy eludes me. Any affection or unconcern that I may have had for it went out of the window once I came to sambar territory for a college education and joined the hostel.

Day in and day out, we would have sambar, with not too many different vegetables in it everyday. For six years, through three hostels in two different cities, there were very few days without sambar.

“Oh, it should be a breeze,” I thought, when I attempted to make sambar occasionally, for The Spouse, soon after I got my own kitchen. It wasn’t. Telling a friend had her coming over to teach me how to make sambar. It really did seem simple. The first few attempts were good - even I liked the sambar I made. Then I don’t know what happened - maybe I didn’t make it for a long time or whatever, I forgot her instructions and was back to square one.

I’ve decided I will no longer spend time trying to master it. Instead, I will make pappucharu which, as I discovered through a process of trial and error, is rather similar to what is made at home. I don’t know if any tiresome masalas are ground at home for this, I’m not bothered. I do know that this is what I like and this is what I’m comfortable with.

On with the recipe, then!

Toor dal/moong dal: ¾ cup (It’s more often made with toor dal rather than moong dal - I used moong for this)Vegetables: 1.5-2 cups, chopped/sliced (Actually, go by instinct; You can use a single vegetable or a combination of a few, such as radish, bottle gourd, pumpkin white and yellow, carrot, onion***, tomato**** )Tamarind: 3 strips, 1 inch in length, soaked in 2 cups of water for 30 minutes at leastGreen chillies: 2Red chilli powder: ½-1 tspTurmeric: ½ tspCoriander powder: 1 tsp (optional)Salt, to taste

Pour the water into a pressure cooker/pan (you can even make this without a pressure cooker), add the vegetables, the green chillies, the turmeric, coriander powder and the salt. Let it cook till it whistles once.

Empty the contents into another dish and in the same pressure cooker (so as not to use too many dishes), place the dal and immerse it in enough water till it’s just about soaked, just above the level of the dal. Pre-soaking the dal helps it cook faster.

The dal should be done in about two whistles, after which you can turn down the heat and simmer it for five minutes. Once you switch off the stove, let the pressure drop naturally and open it then.

Mash the dal with a masher or the back of a ladle. Add the tamarind juice-vegetable mixture to this and boil till it becomes all bubbly. Check for seasoning.

In a small wok, heat the oil. Splutter the mustard, then the cumin and the curry leaf and garlic. Add the red chillies. Then add the fenugreek and turn off the heat. Tip this into the pappucharu and cover it. You can garnish it with fresh coriander.

Best eaten with rice, and even with idli/dosa.

***Onion: Peel off a few layers if the onions are big, but let it remain bulbous.

****Tomato: It is recommended to use a smaller amount of tamarind if you’re using tomatoes but I find that only the country tomatoes are sour, the hybrids aren’t.

Pappucharu is a thick soup, more of water and less of lentils, while sambar is a much thicker preparation. Think of pappucharu as a rather transparent variety of sambar, and you’ll probably get the right consistency.

Sra,I only make sambhar with ready made sambhar powders , most of the time it turn out well , never tried making with home-made masala powder though ..quite true about Desi Tomatoes, they are sour not like the hybrids which is all we get here ... hugs and smiles

When making sambar and rasam, tamarind plays a predominant role. So the quantity of tamar change the taste of the dish. Why each and evry time is different!But I like the liquid version of ur sambar :)

The first time I made sambar,it become trash,After many attempts and darlinghubby really is a good cook when it comes to sambar,it worked out for me now....your version is simple and it looks yummy too,I love the way you narrate it.

Rachel, yeah, it's lighter too!Aparna, growing up, I thought sambar had to have coconut in it - going by the hotel sambar we often had. It was quite a revelation to me that it wasn't a rule!Divya, really? Even my pappucharu doesn't taste the same each time.Jaya, here the desi tomatoes cost more than the hybrid ones but I mostly buy those only.Uma, it's pappucharu! LOL! Thanks.Vidya, And more diluted!Lavi, I will do that next time, thanks.Laavanya, I am just bored with sambar, maybe I need to come across a really different one!Cham, that's because I'm not a very rigid or careful cook, I guess. :) I try to 'improve' every time!Bee, thanksRicha, The Spouse makes everything at once, in the pressure cooker, got the recipe from some pressure cooker manual! It never worked for me.Mrs Kannan, welcome, and thanks. Lekhni, the problem with sambar for me is that whenever I've eaten it, the taste of the vegetable doesn't come through. Maybe I've been unlucky. Radish smells, dunno if it imparts a taste, tho' - drumstick does!

Sra come home, I'll treat u with my sambar. I am an expert only with Sambar. If I make vendaikai/murungaikaai sambar, my family licks the bowl. Its actually lies in the sambar powder. Next time we meet I will bring a pack of that. Papuchaaru being a lighter version seems to be my favorite!

Hello Sra - Hey.. it was my mom's 60th birthday not mine :-))). Hee Hee. She wrote the post (though I posted!) Thanks a ton for your wishes.

Sambars and dals ... veggys and dal, with or without tamarind, with or without sambar podis...each turns out differently, but all taste good. Mom's the expert ...but I just make anything..sometimes my rasam gets too thick, and at times my sambar gets to thin ...I guess I next time I make thin sambar I will tell folks I made pappucharu. The pic looks lovely. Good dal with mild seasoning, and a dash of ghee....YUMMY.

no cow's dung (or is it some other dung;) in tadka? he he he...i hated sambar when i was staying at hostel. well, as a matter of fact i hated almost all the food cooked there. actually i prefered north Indian food to any south Indian while growing up( u know the kind which uses onion, ginger-garlic, tomato and garam masala) and my mom had gr8 difficulty in making me eat rasam or sambar. only when i started cooking i really liked its taste. err, not that i cook better than my amma but it is so simple and easy to cook ;)beautiful pic of those radish discs floating sra. loved this simple recipe.

Jyothsna, most of my dishes taste different each time I make them!Valli, yeah, I'm surprised too! (weary sigh)Ni, I beg you, please don't bring the powder, I have a packet. Just bring the sambar :-DPaz, yeah, it was quite tasty!Priyanka, no, we don't see it that way! As far as I know, in AP, rasam (charu) is a very thin soup made from tamarind extract or tomatoes or a bit of dal diluted with lots of water.Dibs, I'm sorry - I got confused. When I first saw your blog, I thought it was your mom and you, then the next couple of posts that I read seemed to be Mom, and then I thought that maybe I was mistaken about two people writing.And yes, ghee really elevates the taste - I've tried it once, but even 1 teaspoon of it had the thing congealing in the fridge! That puts me off.Sia darling, that's devil's dung you're thinking of, not cow's dung! :-D No, at home and in our extended community, we don't use asafoetida, as far as I know. Just a habit/tradition. I like the taste, though, and use it sometimes.

I too am not a sambar person... I can tolerate it with rice, and a big no-no with idlis... Anyway everyone I know have their own version of sambar.. Looking at your instructions I'd call this sambar too... and I prefer this version to the thicker ones.

Hi hi that is why i use shop bought sabhar powder, and i just do what is written in the back of the box ;-) i don't think mine taste as good as my moms or sisters sambar, You pappu char looks delicious, i can imagine having a huge portion of rice with it yumm

Sia, don't worry, we're all cracked somehow or the other, and we all need a long break, I'm sure.Sharmi, so did you?Susan, 90 minutes? Oh my! I'd probably take double that to make a simple pie, though!Sig, idli tasted good to me with this too, I tried it recently.Happy Cook, this is good as a soup, too, but it tastes v good with rice, as you imagine.